1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to applying codes onto packaged consumer products. The present invention also relates to a generic non-coder specific file format to facilitate communication between a first processing device configured to facilitate the design of codes and a second processing device configured to assist with the application of codes onto packages consumer products.
2. Description of the Related Art
For most consumer products, such as perishable products sold in supermarkets etc., there is often a requirement for the product to be marked in some way during a packaging process. Usually, packaging for individual products will be printed using sophisticated printing techniques so as to appeal to the eye of the consumer. It is therefore common practice for packaging of this type to include unique information, usually represented in the form of a bar code, identifying a specific product, thereby allowing products to be scanned at a checkout in preference to price information being entered manually. Consequently, this product identification code, as applied to the individual consumer products, may be created offline during the printing of the consumer product packaging.
In addition to the product identification markings, products often require other forms of marking, often in the form of dates and prices. In response to market conditions, prices may need to change, therefore it is preferable that any price information is not pre-printed onto consumer products. The price information may be considered as being date sensitive and therefore it is preferable for this information to be applied to the products after manufacture.
There is often other date sensitive information printed onto products, typically in the form of a display until date and a use by date. The display until date identifies the last day on which the product may remain on display on supermarket shelves. After this day the product may be removed from the shelves or reduced substantially in price. Similarly, the use by day is the last day on which the consumer may be reassured that the product is still sufficiently fresh to be consumed. Thereafter, unless the product has been frozen etc., the product may no longer be suitable for consumption and should therefore be destroyed.
Many products packaged in this way have a relatively short shelf life therefore it would not be possible to print this information as part of the offline package printing process. It is therefore necessary to code this information onto products at some point between the products being manufactured and the products being further packaged for distribution to wholesalers and supermarkets etc. in the form of traded units.
Often traded units are constructed from assemblies of consumer products, each of which may have many consumer products contained therein. It is not therefore unusual to have three or more stages of packaging and at each stage of packaging there is a further requirement for information to be coded onto the packaging itself.
Often, subsequent packaging materials are not printed for a specific product, given that this would require large quantities of material to be held in stock. Consequently, it is necessary for product related information to be coded onto these packaging materials again during the packaging process. This information, may comprise an indication of the product itself, an indication of batch number, a unique number identifying the position in the batch, i.e. an incrementing lot number, a display until date, a use by date and possibly a unit price. In order to achieve this, there are many types of coding apparatus available on the market and it is common practice for these, to be arranged in a line such that consumer products are manufactured, the consumer products are coded, the coded products are arranged as assemblies, the assemblies are coded, the assemblies are packaged in to traded units and finally the traded units are coded, as a continual manufacturing process.
Increasingly, supermarkets and wholesalers etc. are specifying the type of information that they require to be coded onto packaging at various stages, It is also likely that a manufacturer would suffer significant penalties were the coded information to be incorrect in any way. Consequently, a substantial burden has been placed on manufacturers to ensure that products are coded as required.
Traditionally, instructions are supplied to coding equipment manually such that, for the start of each batch, it would be necessary for all online coders to be manually updated in this way. Furthermore, modifications may be required during the packaging process, particularly for large batches, where date information and lot increments may change over time. Consequently, it has been recognised that it is preferable to connect coders together over a network so that they may receive instructions electronically from a processing system, such as one or more PC type computer systems. It would be desirable for an originator of a coded graphical representation to design this graphical representation within a conventional graphics package and then for this information to be supplied to packaging coding machines in a way substantially similar to that in which information is conveyed from computer systems to traditional office type printers. However, whereas printers have substantially similar functionality and capabilities, all of which are often designed to compatible standards, such as those capable of working under the Windows operating system, coders are significantly different in that they are produced by many manufacturers using their own in-house standards. Furthermore, the functional capabilities of coders are not consistent.
In order to provide an environment in which instructions from a processing system may be supplied to any coder within a manufacturing facility, it has been suggested that a processing system could be responsible for the generation of all graphical information and then supply this graphical information to all coders in the form of bitmaps. However, the speed at which most coding operations are performed, particularly when individual consumer products are being coded, prevents this approach from being adopted and it is therefore necessary to rely on processing capability built into the coder itself. Consequently, it becomes extremely difficult to network coders of this type unless individual coder specific software is created for each individual packaging station. Often, this is an unrealistic solution and therefore a reliance on manual intervention continues to be prevalent.
A further problem arises if conventional graphical packages are used to generate graphical information. The graphical information produced will be in the form of a bitmap or, alternatively, in some form of compressed representation. Once converted into one of these graphical forms, the underlying information about dates and barcodes for example is lost. Subsequently, it is only possible for coders to reproduce this graphical information and it is not possible for them to receive the underlying information so that use may be made of their internal capabilities. As previously stated, this becomes an unrealistic solution given the underlying requirements for speed of operation and reliability.
According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for applying codes onto packaged consumer products, wherein said products are packed individually and then further packed into groups of products; at least one coder applies information to said packaging; said coder receives instructions from a processing system; said processing system receives graphical data representing an image to be coded onto said packaging and generates said instructions for said coder, wherein said processing system generates said instructions with reference to the capabilities of said coder such that, in dependence upon said capabilities, said processing system either a) instructs said coder to generate a graphical representation in response to coded instructions, or b) said processing system generates a graphical representation of said image and supplies said graphical representation to said coder.
By being made aware of the capabilities of a coder type, it is possible for a processing system to make use of internal capabilities when these are available, while filling in for less functional coder capabilities when these capabilities are not available.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of communicating between a first processing device configured to facilitate the design of codes for packaged consumer products and a second processing device configured to control coding machines for coding said packaged products in response to said design, wherein data transmitted from said first processing station to said second processing station defines said codes in a generic non-coder specific format defining a requirement for said codes; and said second processing device is aware of coder capabilities and instructs specific coders to apply codes in response to a generic code design and a definition of capabilities for a specific coder.